Gilead Sciences

A Bay Area pharmaceutical firm is among other top drug makers facing scrutiny over enormous profits, the price charged for drugs, and how much the company spends on marketing versus research and development.

In what some HIV experts calling a courageous move, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener has gone public with news that he’s taking the HIV prevention drug Truvada, saying the idea is to raise awareness that this treatment could save lives.

An Oregon Medicaid committee is expected Thursday to significantly scale back access to an effective—but expensive—new drug used to treat hepatitis C, the second state to retrict access to the drug in two days.

Doctors are calling a newly-approved drug a “ revolution” in treating the most common blood-borne infection in the United States. But patient advocates warn how those who need it may not be able to afford it; and noisy protests from Paris to San Francisco are trying to drive the displeasure over the price into the open.

Gilead Sciences said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration rejected two marketing applications for HIV treatments, citing quality control problems at the Foster Citry company’s manufacturing facilities.